The Final Frontier, And a Painful History
by Rinsaku Hiroshi
Summary: Taken from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. This basically explains my character's background before she was taken by the Klingons. Incomplete, but I WILL finish! Update: finished!
1. Chapter 1

The smiling Vulcan pulled away from McCoy who looked as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Rin was staring at the Vulcan with an anger burning in her eyes as McCoy moved over to his captain.

"What have you done to my friends?" Kirk asked in almost an alarmed tone.

"I've done nothing," Sybok answered truthfully. "This is who they are. Didn't you know that?"

"Why?" he asked once more.

"Now, think about yourself."

"No," he answered rather quickly as he walked away from the Vulcan.

"Jim, I was wrong about this. Try and be open about this," McCoy urged bit Kirk refused to comply.

"About what?" he asked. "I made the wrong choices in my life? I turned left when I should've turned right? I don't need Sybok to take me on a tour of them."

"If you just bend a little…" McCoy began again but Kirk interrupted.

"And be brainwashed by this con-man?!"

"This con-man took away my pain."

"Darn it, Bones," Kirk said with an angry expression on his face, "you're a doctor. You know that pain can't be taken away by the wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us; the things that make us who we are! We lose them, we lose ourselves! I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain!" He directed the last part to Sybok.

Sybok continued to stare at Kirk for another moment and a peculiar expression passed over his face. He slowly turned around and his eyes rested on Rin. "How do you contain it with such ease?"

"What do you mean?" She sent him a slightly confused look and stepped backwards as he stepped toward her.

"Your pain…" he began with an empathetic tone, "…throughout all my travels across the galaxies, I have never sensed pain as deep, as strong, as painful as yours."

She looked like she was glaring daggers at him and she hissed in a most threatening way, "Don't try it."

But it was too late. Behind her, a forest appeared, think and humid, and from a thicket off to the right, an Aurelian chick came stumbling across the leaves and collapsed at the base of a tree. It was bleeding severely from a phaser blast to the side of its white neck and Kirk then realized the chick to be Rin. He glanced back at her. She had rested a talon over the black scar on her neck and looked to be trembling, as if she had been exposed to the cold.

The chick laid there for a moment or two trying to regain its breath and with much effort, forced itself to its feet. "Scill nai?" she whispered and McCoy glanced at Rin with a confused expression on his face.

"Why me?" Rin quietly translated and as the chick continued to whisper, she continued to translate. "Why is it me the Klingon's hunt? Can they not search someplace else for some other species but us?"

A horrible screech sounded through the trees and Rin hung her head as the chick took off running as fast as it could. Another screech found her ears as she continued to run, and another, and another. By the time she skidded to a halt just at the edge of the forest, many voices had filled the air, and to the human ear, although they had no knowledge of the message the sound carried, it sent shivers down Kirk and McCoy's spines. Sybok still had the same pitying expression on his face and Spock prepared himself for what he knew was coming.

Rin lost her anger for Sybok as the Sith and Klingon's popped back into her mind and she forced herself to look at the scene before all of them. All except for her hut, many others had fallen from their rightful place in the trees and had fallen to the ground. A few unfortunate adults had been trapped when they had fallen and their remains laid still, dirty and mangled from the weight that had crashed down on them.

The chick ran about the ruins screaming to any and all for a response and Rin didn't bother translating. As her younger self flew to investigate the ruins of her hut, Rin turned away, not wishing to see the inside again.

Though you couldn't tell from the outside, they were an extremely advanced race, owning all sorts of advanced technology, although they did not need it. The inside of the ruined hut reminded Kirk of the inside of the Enterprise, and Rin's quarters, he now realized, took the design of her species, as Spock did.

She shuddered as a crunch echoed through the now-abandoned hut and the little room on the ship and her younger self looked down and made a sound like she had been kicked in the ribs. She had stepped on the remnants of an eggshell, and as Rin glanced at the screen, she caught a glimpse of what would've been her sibling lying in the corner of the room, only half-formed.

The walls were coated with splats of silver along with the electronics and the floor, and off to her left a pile of various broken items, including a bit of the roof, moved. Without thinking the chick jumped onto the pile and dug until she reached the bottom of the pile. "Laqueta," the chick gasped and she pulled the Aurelian from the mess.

Regret was showing in Rin's eyes as she listened to her mother's voice and she thought the words to herself as her near-death parent spoke, "Rin, you live. Where is Callista?"

"Callista?" the chick asked back in the language that flowed so smoothly through the human and Vulcan ears in the room. "I do not know. I have not seen her since early before the sun rose."

The look on the Aurelian's face was one of calm and she then collapsed onto the ground. She spoke as if she had never been injured and asked with a concerned tone, "The egg… where is the egg, Rin?"

The chick's eyes widened and she asked, "Are you injured? What has happened to you? Who has been here?"

Her mother's eyes bore deep into her chick's and she answered in a hoarse voice, "Creatures, with shin the color of the soil, mane as askew as the branches of the skrimlore trees, eyes as cold and cruel as death itself, and they carry the scent of a thousand rotting corpses… the Klingons."

At the sound of the foreign word a cold blanket descended on the room, and all could easily tell what it meant. "They entered normally enough, until one demanded the egg. In their foreign tongue I declined, and was attacked." She lifted a wing to reveal a long and deep gash down her side. "Tell me, Rin, where is the egg?"

Rin stared with a saddened expression and looked to the corner. "It was all for naught," she whispered quietly as her mother laid eyes on the tiny embryo. "Laqueta, what should we do? What _can_ we do?"

There was silence as she stared at her lost chick and she commended, "Go find and warn Vivek."

"Father?" Rin repeated. "But why-"

"Just go, Rinsaku!" she interrupted. "Go find and warn him. He will do all he can to protect you."

"And what of you?"

They stared long and hard into each other's eyes and she muttered, "My time is overspent. But you still have a chance. Please, my dearest Rinsaku, go to him before it is too late!" Rin stood firm and did not budge. "You _will_ go," Laqueta said again and when Rin did not move still, she grabbed her by the scruff of her little neck and launched her out through a hole in the roof. "Go!"

Not seconds after being thrown from the hut, there was a loud crack and the limb that the hut was resting on smashed to the ground. Bits of splintered wood went flying in all directions and Rin fought the urge to return to her home and flew off, not wishing to see the destruction she was leaving behind her.

Another wild call sounded in the distance and Rin dove out of the skies for cover, but not fast enough. A red jet of light just missed her as she barrel-rolled to the left and she plummeted to the ground and landed on all fours. Without a second thought she took off running toward the sound of the cries while avoiding her pursuers.

The frustrated shouts died down behind her and she slowed a bit. As she came to a slow stop in the middle of a clearing, all sound stopped with her. Rin tensed up and her fur stood on end in fear as she realized her possibly-fatal mistake. "Surrounded?" she whispered to herself as a dozen or so Klingons appeared around her with their guns at the ready.

She was frozen at the center of the clearing and pitifully sat and lowered her head, almost a sign of surrender. If she ran, they would fire. If she flew, they would fire. If she called for help, they would fire, and take many more lives besides hers.

They were slowly closing in around her. One held chains in his hands and a few others held nets in their hands. They were nearly upon her when a horrifying sound filled the air. This sound was even worse then the first one. Every Klingon tensed and looked over their shoulders in fear. "What was that?" one asked in his native tongue but none were able to answer.

Rin's ears shot up to better hear the sound and she stood again. "Vivek?" she whispered to herself and she listened harder to the sound. It was none like she had ever heard before in her life. It was a cry of ferocious anger, a terrible rage. It was of pain; not physical, but mental pain, emotional pain. A cry of sadness, of loss, and worry.

With all the Klingon's staring off into different directions, she sprinted out of the clearing and into the skies. "He's seen the wreckage, he's found her remains," she told herself, and her eyes suddenly went wide. "I left trace amounts of my blood at the hut. He thinks I'm dead too." After realizing this, her flight seemed that much longer because of her thought pattern although she was moving faster. In time the call seased and the forest fell quiet.

She dove into a tree nearby on the topmost branch and strained her hearing for the slightest noise. "Where are you, Vivek?" she quietly asked him and a breeze picked up. "That scent," she mumbled as she sniffed the air. "That _is_ Vivek!"

Rin took off again and when the scent was strongest of all, she landed again in another clearing. "Vivek!" she called frantically but there was no answer. "Vivek!" she cried again, but louder this time and behind her she heard something coming through the bushes. Someone was moving toward her at an alarming rate. Thinking it was her father she darted toward them bushes, but just before reaching them, a group of Klingons and men dressed in white armor emerged, weapons drawn.

She backpedaled as quick as she could but a Klingon jumped behind her and held her tight. "I know you can understand me, little one," he hissed he tightened his hold. "Consider yourself the spoils of war. I do not wish to harm you further, but I will not hesitate." An evil smile crossed his face and he added, "And if you do defy me, I have been searching for a rug for my quarters."

"You will do no such thing," she hissed back in his language and bit his hand. He shouted out in pain and fury as he dropped her and she sped off as fast as her legs could carry her. "A rug? Out of me? I think not."

Rin sped down the hill rather quickly and turned her head over her shoulder. Al the Klingons had stopped at the top of the hill and were staring down at her as she continued to run. "Have they given up?"

Her pace slowed a little but as she continued to stare at them over her shoulder. Not watching where she put her paws, she continued jogging until something closed tight around her right talon. Rin screeched loudly in pain as she tried to pull out of the metal jaws but to no avail. She could hear the Klingons rapidly approaching down the hill toward her and she began to panic. Silver was gushing from her injured wrist and pooling on the ground. She could hear them charging through the bushes just behind her and she pulled harder then before.

The pain was excruciatingly painful, without a doubt, but with her freedom, not to mention life, at stake, she tugged and pried away, praying that the iron jaws would give, but they did not. Rin let out a wild scream for help to any and all who would listen, but none replied. She called again, louder this time, but still there was no answer.

The leader of the invading group stopped and stared as she continued to right for her freedom. He patted one of the white-armored men on the shoulder and growled, "Shoot it once, and kill. Aim at the chest. I want its head for a trophy, understand?"

Rin stopped and stared at him as a cold feeling washed over her. A pitiful sound escaped her throat as the weapon rose to level, almost a sound begging for mercy. The Klingon was not at all moved by the noise, but the armored man was fighting internally to try to make himself pull the trigger. She quietly exhaled as she prepared for the shot, and a sound coming from the bushes on her left made her ears stand on end.

"On my count…"

Rin tugged again as the shuffling in the bushes slightly grew louder and she let out a low whine to the trembling trooper.

"Three…"

She sent the Klingon a look of disgust and he shot back a hateful look. "Two…"

The trooper lowered the weapon slowly and let it hang at his side as he exhaled. "What are you doing, soldier?" the Klingon hissed as a look of frustration passed over his face and he stepped awfully close to the trooper.

"I…" he began quietly, "… I cannot shoot it, Sir." His eyes were on the ground almost in attempt to avoid the anger that was radiating from the enraged alien.

"Alright then, soldier," he muttered with an underlying sound of anger and he took the blaster from the trooper. "'Tis a shame," he sighed and he pointed the blaster at the trooper. You were full of promise." He pulled the trigger and as the trooper dropped to the ground he threw the blaster beside him. "Humans…" he said loudly with a tone if disgust, "…all the same. Too soft and emotional." He looked up at one of his fellow Klingon brothers and commanded, "You. Shoot. Now."

Without and question he raised the gun, and just as he was firing, a black blur ran in front of Rin with his wings wide open to protect her and took the shot. A shower of silver blood covered the surrounding area and Rin shakily looked up. "Vivek," she breathed with a small smile.

He said nothing and went straight to work on prying the metal mouth apart. His face looked worn with worry as he worked and he was splattered with the blood of men, Klingons, and that of his own.

"Don't just stand there!" the Klingon was screaming at his little battalion of soldiers. "Shoot them both at will! Fire! Fire!"

He carefully removed her talon from the trap as they began shooting and without waiting a second longer he grabbed her and took to the skies.

Rin stared at him as the ground disappeared below them and became what looked to be a giant patchwork quilt. "Vivek," she whispered with a small smile and she tapped her small beak to his large one.

"Now… is not the time," he responded with an unusually strained voice. She could see in his eyes that he was fighting something, though she was unsure of what it was. "The time for words will come, but not now."

She could feel him shaking, but with pain or fear she could not tell. His attitude change and with the difficulty he was having staying airborne disturbed Rin further but her respect kept her quiet for the rest of the journey.


	2. Chapter 2

After what seemed to be the longest time, he finally began his decent out of the clouds and landed on the ground. It was a clumsy landing, she realized now she was older, looking back, but she now understood why. He limped into a nearby burrow and settled down in the furthest corner. Rin quietly followed him into the dark shadows of their shelter and glanced over her shoulder to watch the last golden rays of their sun sink below the horizon too make room for Tyrius' two moons. It was a soothing and relaxing sight after all the chaos and strife she had seen that day and she took a deep breath of the cool night air. Forgetting her injured wrist she rose on her toes to better see out the hidden burrow. She yelped and gently rolled back on her hind legs and licked the wound that was bleeding again.

"Rin," he weakly called, "come here, and show me your wounds."

She obediently hopped over and extended the injured limb. After gently examining it from all angles, he groaned as he forced himself to his feet and exited the underground burrow. When he returned shortly after, he had several different leaves in his talon, along with a silvery-blue berry. His color was paling and his limp was a bit more severe, but he paid no mind to his injuries. His eldest daughter came first, and if there was time, he came after.

"What are those?" she asked curiously as he sat in front of her and he looked over her injuries again.

"These," he quietly answered as he pulled a large black feather from his wings, "are healing herbs. Surely you'll recognize some of them. This, the takeo herb, to treat swellings. And this," he continued as he examined a large green stem. "the…"

"That's asinolyathin in its plant form," she finished after recognizing the green plant. "It's a… pain medicine, right?" She beamed with pride when he smiled and nodded and she asked as her eyes caught sight of the berry, "What is that?"

"Think of it as a natural anesthetic," he answered. "The smell knocks nearly anything out."

Rin's content look faded away as she realized how bad the wound was. "Are they _that _serious? It'll hurt that badly?"

He looked like he was trying to extend a wing to envelop her in, but something passed behind his eyes for a second and he was unable to. "I won't lie to you, little one," he sighed. "Yes, it will be painful. But I have taken the proper measures in order to avoid it as much as possible. I don't want you to feel any of it."

He neared her with the berry in his talon but as she began to realize why his voice was the way it was and why he was breathing so hard, she put her talon on top of his and stopped him. "But Vivek, you look worse then I do. Shouldn't I help you before you-"

"No," he sharply interrupted and he closed his eyes to retain his mental and physical pain and frustration. "You are more important. If there is time, then, and only then, will the time be mine."

"But Vivek," she whined pitifully, trying to get him to bend, but his expression was a stern one, "you're bleeding!"

Sure enough, one of his sides was swollen and lumpy and silvery. "Please, let me help-"

There was a small pop and he ran his finger down between her nostrils. Rin stared at him with a confused look on her face and as her eyes panned down, she saw the busted berry in one of his open talons. Her eyesight got a little fuzzy and her surroundings were getting darker but she fought it. She tried to remain standing still but she was a little wobbly. The chick opened her little beak to say something but nothing came out and she fell into the dirt, merely sleeping.

Kirk looked back to his old furry friend with a look of sympathy and asked, "There's more, isn't there?"

He had never seen the expression on her face before. It was nearly impossible to read. It reminded him of one of Spock's emotionless expressions, but underneath it was an erupting volcano of emotion. She struggled to keep her mask as she painfully whispered, "Of course there's more."

Things were fuzzy once more but they were getting brighter by the second. Her head was spinning severely and she blinked a few times and groaned. Rin suddenly remembered about her injuries and she felt her neck. A feather had been placed over the small hole to help it heal faster and she smirked as she realized it was one of her father's. She moved her wrist slowly and smiled when it did not hurt too badly.

"Vivek," she quietly called and she scanned their dark shelter. She could barely make him out lying in the corner opposite her and she quietly crawled over to him. "Vivek, are you sleeping?" Rin got closer to him and gently nudged his side wither beak.

He yelped loudly and slid away and he muttered, "I was."

Rin's eyes narrowed at the pool of blood he had been lying in and she shot him a look. "You're _not_ alright! What's wrong with you Vivek?" Her young voice had taken on a worried tone now and had backed away from the shallow puddle.

"It isn't important, what is wrong with me," he said coolly as he gently rested himself on the ground again.

She sent him a cold look and growled, "Your ribs look cracked and some broken, and it sounds as though one of your lungs has been punctured. Don't tell me it's not important! Your wounds need to be treated! You could d… di…" She couldn't bear to choke out the last word and she hung her head.

He watched her with sadness welling up in his being and though it caused him great pain, he reached wing out and wrapped it around her and groaned, "No matter the outcome, always keep fighting, even if the ending is inevitable. Our species had the hardest time adapting to the changes in this universe, and if they had quit and chose to die in captivity, we wouldn't be here today. Never quit, for there are no excused for such a thing."

Rin drank in her words slowly and looked down. "But… but I haven't yet given up. Why won't you allow me to help you?"

He couched and spat out the little blood that came up and he wheezed, "My injuries are too severe for you, youngling. As you said, I do have cracked ribs and one is completely broken and it put a hole in one of my lungs. It will take an extremely knowledgeable medic to treat me. In time, you too will be well learned in the medical field."

She growled at him. "Then let's go find someone who knows how to treat you!"

"After all that has happened, all who were not slaughtered have gone into hiding. It would be unwise to search for them." He turned one of his ears to the entrance of the burrow and listened.

"But if we send one of those telepathic messages," Rin argued, "maybe one could come. Please, let me try-"

"No!" he silenced her and he glanced out through the opening again. "Be silent."

"Vivek, please!"

"Rinsaku Hiroshi!" He glared her down and hissed, "Be silent. I command it." His voice was filled with not anger, as she had expected, but fear. The expression on his face was one of nervousness and it frightened her greatly.

She hung her head and pressed her ears flat against her skull. Now that she had grown silent, she could make out the quiet sounds of someone, or something, moving around outside.

"I think I heard something over there," a deep Klingon voice said barely loud enough to carry into the burrow.

They were slowly coming closer and with every step Rin grew more nervous. She was beginning to tremble in her corner of the little burrow with her wings over her face and she was fighting the urge to call for help.

Her father had hidden himself in the shadows with a clear view out of the entryway.

"There's a burrow here," one said and they stopped, just a foot or so from the hold. "Go in and see if it's inhabited."

The other hesitated for a brief moment and slowly walked into the burrow. Rin made no noise as he moved around the small opening and he sighed as he could see nothing. "There's nothing down here," he called and he began to make his way out again.

Just before he made it though, he tripped over the adult Aurelian's thick tail and groaned in discomfort as he fell to the ground. Before he could call out again, Rin's father moved from the shadows and pinched a nerve in the Klingon's large neck. A second later he was unconscious and soundless.

"Telok! What has happened?" the Klingon above ground shouted excitedly and he peered into the hole.

"All is well." He imitated the sleeping Klingon's voice with surprising accuracy and Rin unwrapped herself fro her wings. "I have fallen and am unable to move. Come assist me."

He hesitantly followed into the burrow, and met the same fate the same fate as his companion. Rin cautiously approached them slowly and poked them with her beak.

"What did you do?" she asked as she remembered the motion and she looked up at him.

"They call it the Vulcan Nerve Pinch," he answered. "A Vulcan friend of mine by the name of Sarek taught it to me many years ago. Memorize the technique and use it, but only if forced to. It is an effective maneuver."

"I will," she promised and she glanced down at the aliens again. "Funny creatures, these… Klingons," she muttered and she made a face at the smell they carried. "Laqueta was right. They do smell like a thousand rotting corpses."

"Everything has its purpose, Rin," he told her. "From the Andorian, to the Vulcan, and even to the lowliest Human, all have a purpose. Just be careful who you interact with. Not all are as forgiving as we."

She nodded understandingly and then quietly asked, "Even the humans have a use?"

He stared at her with a blank expression and repeated, "Even the humans. Don't look down to them, Rin. They deserve more credit then what the universe grants them. They are a caring race, and they place family nearly as high as we do. They have come a long way, since their beginning. In order to gain respect, you must first give it. Understand?"

Rin stared at him in almost a confused way, but nodded. "Yes sir."


	3. Chapter 3

Vivek jumped through the hole and after he scanned the immediate area he called her out. "We are unsafe here. We must move to a safer location."

Rin crawled out of the little burrow and into the moonlight under the watchful eye of her father. "On foot?"

"We'd be a target in the sky," he explained. "Come!"

Rin quietly followed him though the bushes and between the trees, doing her best to keep out of the moonlight.

He suddenly stopped at the edge of a small clearing and he stared long and hard at the open space and he sat. "One of the most dangerous spots throughout this entire forest," he growled, "the open spots, where 'tourists' have cleared away the brush to camp and 'Enjoy the scenery"." He was starting to shake again under all the physical stress he was putting on himself.

"Vivek," Rin whispered, "are you alright?"

He didn't answer her at all as he continued to scan the barely lit area. The only possible way to avoid the clearing was to fly, but that was far too risky. The only remaining option was to go through the lit minefield, and he slowly picked himself off the ground. Noiselessly, he gently picked up Rin and darted into the clearing. He stopped in one of the few bushes there and took a brief breather. He shot off again into the nearest bush and from the nest, to the next.

"Father, I hear something!" Rin whispered and his ears pointed straight up in the air.

As he narrowed in on the sound, he asked her, "Where do you think it is?"

She was quiet a moment and pointed off to the right. "It's over there." She shivered and muttered, "I fear the worst is about to happen."

"You are correct with the location," he acknowledged. "This last dash is the most dangerous. I want you to promise me that if I fall, you will not stop, but continue for the shelter of the forest. Do you promise it?"

"What?" she asked, half confused, half scared. "Abandon you to those creatures?"

"If it comes to that, yes." He looked grave as he spoke the words. "Promise me Rin, please. You must continue onward. Our family line depends on you."

Her expression was cold and pale, but she slowly nodded.

"Good." He prepared himself to run and Rin hesitantly took a place on the ground under his wing. "Ready" For when we begin we may not turn back."

She was shaking with fear as she calmly said, "Ready when you are."

"Very well." He poked his head out of the bush and in the opposite direction and tossed a rock as he whispered, "Go," and they darted toward the trees.

He narrowly missed a dart as it passed between his ears but he continued to run. The sound of lasers, bullets, and darts flying by surrounded them as they raced for the trees, then they stopped. A second later, it started up again, and they had aimed for just in front of him. He shielded Rin with his wing so she would not get hit, but a dart clipped him on the shoulder and he grimaced.

'_No,'_ he thought as fear erupted in him. _'I can't stop here. No matter how badly poisoned I am, I must continue on.'_

Another dart caught him on the opposite shoulder and stuck. He was already beginning to feel the effects of the deathly liquid when all opposing attack stopped again. The Klingons had come out from hiding and were standing in front of the edge of the clearing and one of their Birds of Prey was hovering above him so he wouldn't fly out. He went running in the other direction to buy himself more time and he telepathically told Rin, _"I'm going to drop you off in that bush. You are to hide there either until I tell you to come out, or it is safe. No matter what happens, do not move from this bush. Even if I an endangered, do NOT call out, or leave this bush. They've yet to see you. Use that to your advantage."_

He dove into the bush and left her there with that message and jumped back into the open again. He wrenched the dart out of his shoulder blade and threw it to the ground as he glared at all those that were surrounding him. "Why do you hunt us down here on our home-planet?" he demanded. "We have done you no wrong."

A finely-armored Klingon stepped forward with his arms folded over his broad chest and said, "The treaty has become… obsolete. After the death of your ancient home-planet Zelerohn, the moon that held the peace treaty between our two races _vanished_ mysteriously. The Zelerhonian Treaty is no more, and peace to you is hereby relinquished."

Rin shook with fear at his words and she knew all that had been established here on Tyrius was all for naught. She fought the urge to run to him for his unending comfort, but she did not leave the bush.

"What nonsense is this?" Vivek asked, irritated. "You are taking advantage of the loss of a document to kill my people. Why do you terrorize my family when it is _me_ you despise? Deal with me alone, and leave what is left of my family in peace!"

Rin had never seen him angry before. In the years she had known him, he had never raised his voice or shown any anger at all, until now.

The Klingon laughed aloud. "Certainly," he agreed. "Why not kill you? After you're out of the way, we'll finish off the rest of your weak bloodline, so then Malvadioum and his hated line will dominate whatever you have left behind."

An ear-splitting roar shook the ancient trees and ran across the ground. Half the troops shrank back in terror at the sound that had erupted from his throat. He took a threatening step forward. "If it kills me," he hissed in a dark tone as his claws left several small trenches in the ground, "I will not allow you to inflict any more harm here to the ones I care for."

"It'll kill you anyway," he scoffed. "Have you forgotten? Those darts were not free of toxin. You will die either way."

He growled loudly and frowned upon the situation. "Cheng, please," he asked in a way close to begging, "leave us in peace. Torment us no longer."

Cheng's cold eyes caught the trembling bush out of the corner of his sharp eye and a dark smile played itself across his stern face. "What have we here?" he asked as he pointed one of his men over to the bush. There was a roar from behind him and at least twenty Klingons pounced on the Aurelian and held him still. Cheng took Rin from his soldier and held her in the air by the scruff of her little neck. He looked her in the eyes and he remarked, "It's so young and weak. It's almost pathetic."

Rin glared at him. "You know what else is pathetic?" she challenged. "The fact that you poison him instead of honoring him with a fair fight. It is you who is 'pathetic'."

In his anger he spit in her eye and her face turned grey with rage. Without thinking, she scratched his face with her talon and was careful to ruin his left eye. He howled in pain and flung her against a nearby tree. Rin scrambled to her feet and growled at the Klingon who thought to grab her. He back-pedaled and tripped over his own clumsy feet in fear.

Pink Klingon blood spilt onto the ground from the cut orb and the cringing Klingon rounded on her again. "You touch me, and I get the other one too," she hissed. She had puffed up and had outstretched her wings in attempt to look bigger.

In their native tongue, Vivek hoarsely ordered, "Leave, and get to safety. Do a roundabout and make for the mountains. You'll be safe there." He snapped at one of the Klingons that had made to grab his beak and grumbled, "I'll buy you what time I can."

She made a whimpering noise when the feather on her neck dropped in temperature. Rin could feel that he was loosing his energy and he was straining to remain conscious. In her mind's eye, she could see Death hovering just over him, waiting for the creature to quiet the fight against the inevitable.

Cheng nodded to one of his crewmates, and at the command, the young Klingon soldier speared a large, jagged knife down into his prisoner's thick chest. A howl echoed through the trees and every animal therein went into a frenzy. Rin was going ballistic at the sight and sound and she wasn't sure if she should rush forward, or retreat.

They let him up and he staggered to his feet. He only managed a few feet forward before collapsing and he lay still, all with the occasional labored breath.

"Vivek!" she cried as she ran to him.

He narrowed his eyes and again in their language ordered, "Go, before it is too late. Please…"

She didn't listen and stood before him. "You have to get up," she cried mournfully. "Come with me!"

He released an irritated growl from his throat and repeated himself. When Rin did not listen, he snapped his beak threateningly and growled louder still until she backed away. He snapped again and she turned her back and bolted out of the clearing.

Something wrapped itself around her feet and she fell to the ground. As she struggled back to her feet something hit her hard on the side of her head and everything went black.

Rin was glaring at the floor heatedly in her own time. Sybok turned to face her and he set his hands on her shoulders.

"Release your pain," he urged soothingly. "Let the burden of this memory trouble you no more."

She trembled a little at the offer. The thought of being able to forget everything was a tempting one. She shook her head and lifted it slowly so her hard eyes could tunnel into his. "Let go of me," she whispered almost inaudibly.

"Release your pain."

She grabbed one of his hands and pulled it off, leaving claw-marks in the back of his hand. He quickly removed the other one. "Don't touch me, Vulcan traitor. My pain is mine, and mine alone. I don't wish to forget what I have suffered… and learned."

Rin stared at him coolly for another second and with that she left the rom. Kirk later found her in her quarters.

Her back was turned to the door when it opened and he asked, "Can I come in?"

"Are you going to try and remove my pain?"

"I wouldn't dream of it," he answered honestly and she invited him in. "I'm sorry about Sybok. I never knew-"

"Not many do," she muttered. "Sybok has always known, and Spock longer. He'd just never seen it. Sybok only showed it in attempts to break me, but I can't say this was the first time."

"Do you… fear him?" Kirk asked quietly and he silenced when she turned around to look at him.

"I fear no man," she hissed "I never have. I left, for if I had stayed, he would be lying in pieces on the floor."


End file.
